The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, decisively elected the fourth woman and youngest Chair of the Board of Directors. The vote to elect Roslyn Brock came at the organization’s annual board meeting in New York City on Saturday.
Brock formally announced her candidacy in August, following the announcement that current Chair of the Board, Julian Bond, would not seek re-election. At 44, she joins Benjamin Todd Jealous, 35, as the two youngest people to hold the organization’s highest positions.
Julian Bond, chairman of the board for 12 years, said, “I cannot think of a better person to pass the torch to than Roslyn M. Brock.”
“She represents the next generation of civil rights leaders,” said Bond.
Brock started her career with the NAACP more than 25 years ago, serving as a youth board member and Youth and College Division State Conference President. She is a graduate of Virginia Union University, the George Washington University and Northwestern University, and currently works as Vice President of Virginia-based Bon Secours Health Care.
Charles J. Trahan, II, a junior film production major and the membership chair of the Howard University Chapter of NAACP was pleased to hear of the new election. “I think it’s great that the board has elected a young and driven individual,” he said. “It speaks to the organization’s ability to embrace its own ideals by electing a qualified woman to lead the board.”
Thanking the national board for her election, Brock said, “We need to lead and leave it better than we found it… that’s the huge challenge.”
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